Motors are commonly operated with their shafts oriented horizontally. Additionally, a motor may be mounted in a cantilevered fashion as where the motor is driving a fan and the fan impeller and motor are on opposite sides of a supporting partition such as the cap of the fan scroll. Because, when used, isolation mounting structure located beneath the motor supports the weight of the motor, or the like, their use has required complicated configurations of the isolation mountings and hard to assemble arrangements. For example, isolation mountings commonly have a lip portion and a neck portion with the lip portion requiring its deformation to be inserted into an opening which receives the neck portion, a portion of reduced thickness.
Motors mounted with their shafts oriented vertically may be considered to be mounted in a cantilevered fashion where a major portion of the motor is unsupported from the sides and would overhang relative to the support structure if the shaft is oriented horizontally. A major difference in the motors mounted with their shafts vertically oriented and those with their shafts extending upwardly from the motor is that, when a motor is vertically oriented, the weight is supported by all of the mounting structure and the loading direction is shifted 90xc2x0.
A load is supported by isolation mounting structure located in a plane generally perpendicular to the plane of the load. The load is overhung or cantilevered with respect to the plane of the isolation mounting structure. The load, such as a motor, is secured to a mounting plate/motor mount which is connected to base plate/cap of a fan scroll through the isolation mounting structure.
Upon assembly of a vertically extending load, the steps of assembly, other than orientation, would be the same as in the case of a horizontally extending load. The difference is that, in the case of a horizontal load, only the isolation mounting above or beneath the load supports it and tends to provide a pivot for the turning moment resulting from the load. The other mounting structure only resists the turning moment. In the case of a vertical load, all of the supports resist the weight of the load which tends to act along the axis of the shaft in the case of a motor, or the like and this is shifted 90xc2x0, as compared to a horizontally extending load.
Assuming cylindrical or annular supports, only, the lower or upper ones tend to be axially compressed by a horizontal load and all of the supports are compressed, in what would be a lateral direction for a horizontal load, in the case of a vertical load.
The securing of the mounting plate to the base plate does not require the use of separate fasteners, such as nuts, but they may be used in some embodiments of the present invention to prevent separation of the members and/or to regulate the bias/compression applied to the isolation mountings. Portions of the base plate have recesses, or the like, for receiving the isolation mountings. Alternatively, recesses may be located in both the base plate and the mounting plate.
It is an object of this invention to facilitate assembly of structures having loads which are cantilevered or otherwise supported at or near only one end and employing isolation mountings.
It is another object of this invention to permit the use of simple isolators. These objects, and others as will become apparent hereinafter, are accomplished by the present invention.
Basically, isolation mountings extend in a common plane and the axis of the overhung or cantilevered load is perpendicular to that plane. The isolation mountings are located in recesses formed in the base plate alone, in both the base plate and mounting plate, or in both the base plate and motor housing. Where the recesses are solely located in the base plate, installation may simply be placing a washered or large headed screw serially through the isolator, the base plate and threading the screw into the mounting plate or motor housing which remains separated from the base plate. This will be repeated for each isolator. If recesses are located in both the base plate and mounting plate or motor housing, installation simply requires placing the two bottom isolation mountings into the corresponding recesses in the base plate and mounting plate or motor housing. Then, where there are upper recesses in the base plate and mounting plate, an isolation mounting is placed in one of the recesses and compressed while the recesses and isolation mounting are moved into register. It should be noted that the other isolation mountings, being in the same plane and opposite thereto, will also tend to be compressed as the upper isolation mounting is compressed. The compression of the isolation mounting can be performed by any suitable means such as through the use of a tool which acts as a ramp or sloped surface for compressing the upper isolation mounting. When the upper isolation mounting passes the end of the ramp it is received in the other recess with at least a partial reduction of the compression of the isolation mountings in the installed position.